Kichiro Taka

Name: Taka, Kichiro

Gender: Male

Age: 14

Grade: 9th

Extra Curricular Activity: Track Runner and Wrestler, Honors Student. Parents made him learn Karate, which he never liked much.

School: Boys' School for the Gifted Adolescent in San Fransisco, CA.

Appearance: Has that appearance, when you see him, of being a tough guy. His hair is medium length, almost to his shoulders, and sometimes gets into his dark eyes. A good size for a 14 year old with an attractive face, he has better muscle defininition than guys in his class, probably due to his sports activity. He always wears a dark pullover hoodie, along with a black pair of pants. He's had the same pair of shoes for over 2 years, and not because his parents couldn't afford a new pair.

Biography: As far as he knows, his mother was married once before and his father was never married. They lived together happily for a good 12 years, until his father was killed in Iraq. This gives Kichiro a slight disregard for politics and an empathetic view on reasoning. His mother was distraught after that, but still took care of Kichiro well. That is, when she thought he was paying attention.

Kichiro's mother would spend a lot of time in her room, crying and holding something in her hand. One night, after she cried herself to sleep, Kichiro got a look of what his mother always bawled over: A picture of a little girl. As he looked closer, the girl had the face of his mother, but instead of the dark eyes that most Japanese have, he saw green. Was this.... He never got to know, because the next morning, as he was off to a school trip, his class was taken into the program.

Personality-wise, Kichiro is smart. His parents thought a well-rounded child would have the best things in life. Yet, he was almost timid in most social cases. Besides that of his close friends, he never really talked with anyone. Ever since his father died, however, there's been a fire in his eyes. His personality is almost a 180 degree difference. He became outspoken, bold, and defiant towards his peers. It was probably because he had nowhere else to express his grief, being the only boy in the house.

Other: Kichiro stole his mother's picture that night, and he carries it around in his back pocket. One day, he thinks, he'll be able to get out of this game and find this girl that will make his mother happy. The only clue he has is the name scribbled on the back of the photo. Umi....

Number: 02

'As written by Lien. No edits have been made to the author's original work.'

==

Designated Weapon: Stun Gun

Conclusions: I have a feeling that this kid'll never find G02 (Martin, Umi). The karate that his parents forced him to learn might come in handy later on, and the fact that he's into wrestling. Heh, if only B02 (Taka, Kichiro) had gotten the GPS Scanner...

Evaluations
Kills: None

Killed by: Smoke inhalation

Collected Weapons: Stun Gun (to August Masbeth), Box Cutter (from Terry Woodard, to Kiyoko Asakawa) Flail (from Kiyoko Asakawa, back to Kiyoko Asakawa)

Allies: For a short time, Terry Woodard and August Masbeth were his allies. Kiyoko Asakawa stayed with Kichiro for the better part of his time on the island, as did Cassandra Roivas. He was also briefly allied with Daisuke Andou, Umi Martin, Aiden Ambrose, and Andrew Lipson.

Enemies: Surprisingly enough, Kichiro did not encounter any hostile students during his time on the island. Even his death was not at the hands of another student, rather, smoke inhalation is what killed Kichiro.

Mid-game evaluation: Kichiro began his journey on the island in a field near the small house. Upon awakening, he headed directly for the house, unsure of what he would find inside. Inside, August Masbeth and Terry Woodard were cowering, but upon hearing Kichiro's footsteps, Terry immediately went to the window to watch the boy. After a tense interrogation from the duo, Kichiro was allowed in the house, whereupon August revealed to him that his weapon was a stun gun. The trio talked of the game, which eventually resulted in Kichiro expressing his wishes to find his long-lost sister. Though Terry recollected a girl named Umi Martin being on the island, Kichiro blew it off as a mere coincidence. Upon leaving the house, Kichiro almost immediately encountered a girl by the name of Kiyoko Asakawa, who had just been thrown into the game and did not speak a word of English.

Kichiro was taken aback by Kiyoko's green eyes, momentarily mistaking her for Umi. However, once she introduced herself, Kichiro became fully aware that she was not his sister. In fact, she was just another poor soul thrown into this horrendous game. Together, the two headed off, down the dirt path. Along the path, Kiyoko insisted that Kichiro take her flail, claiming he would be much more able to use it than she would. Regretting leaving the girl weaponless, he offered her Terry's boxcutter. It was not much, but at least he had not left her unarmed.

Eventually, their quest led them to the river. Once there, the two hid out a ways from the riverbed, hoping to avoid danger. Unfortunately, "danger" did come, in the form of a girl weilding a shotgun... Cassandra Roivas. After another tense confrontation, Kichiro found the new girl to be friendly, and after a few moments of discussion, insisted that she join them. As the group conversed about survival and escape plans, tension began to build up between Kiyoko and Cassandra. This eventually led to Kiyoko stabbing Kichiro with her boxcutter and retrieving the flail from his bag. The hostile situation lightened up a bit as Kiyoko apologized and informed the group of her insomnia, and the fact that she had not slept in months. That being said, the group headed toward the waterfall.

Kichiro and company approached the waterfall, narrowly missing the battle that had just ensued between Daisuke Andou, Aiden Ambrose, Umi Martin, and Gabrielle Minase. Instead, only Minase's corpse was left in the wake. There was not much to be seen at the waterfall, as they had already missed the violence and bloodshed that had occurred there earlier, so after checking on Minase to make certain that he had passed on, the three continued onward, to the lookout point.

At the lookout point, Kichiro made a dash for the top, but stopped short, realizing there were people there. At the top of the point, he encountered Dai, Aiden, and Umi, along with Andrew Lipson. The situation quickly diffused itself as the group realized that a good percentage of them spoke Japanese, which they assumed the terrorists probably had no understanding of. It was here that Kichiro got his first and only good look at Umi Martin, but blew off the thought that she could be his sister, after the incident with Kiyoko. About that time, Kichiro saw it... the fire that had engulfed the bamboo coppice. Without hesitation, Kichiro bolted off, somehow convinced that his sister may be in the fire.

It never occurred to him that the young woman who he had just conversed with was in fact his sister, Umi. The bamboo coppice was quickly burning to the ground as Kichiro entered, and he began a wild search for Umi, completely convinced that she was somewhere amongst the burning bamboo. Kichiro inhaled more and more smoke, and his life began slowly draining away. Before he finally succumbed to the toxins, he made one last startling revelation: he had already found his sister, and had left her to die in this manner, in the bamboo coppice.

End-game evaluation: The foolish boy spent all his time on the island looking for who he believed to be his sister instead of doing something productive like eliminating the competition. In fact, his desperation to find Umi Martin, who he was already with at the time (unbenowst to him, of course) is what sent him into the flames of the bamboo coppice and to his demise. Almost tragic, some might say.

Memorable Quote(s): "Tekishaseizon (Survival of the Fittest)... desumacchi (deathmatch)." - to Kiyoko Asakawa outside of the small house, trying to sum up what was happening.

"Surviving is first and foremost on our list, until we can find some group we can join with real firepower and a way to hit back at this game." - to Cassandra Roivas after gaining her as an ally.

Other/Trivia

 * Kichiro's long-lost sister, Umi Martin, was on the island along with Kichiro. In fact, he actually encountered her briefly, but never realized the fact until his untimely demise.


 * Kichiro briefly mistook Kiyoko Asakawa for Umi when they first encountered one another.


 * Kichiro was one of the few SOTF characters to have braces, an odd fact, considering the amount of 15-16 year old children who do have them.
 * Kichiro was the first character to die by means other than murder or collar detonation, having died of smoke inhalation.

Threads
''The various threads that contained Kichiro. In order from first to finish.''


 * Starting Place for Boy 09


 * Towards the River


 * A Place to Hide


 * Chillin' At The Waterfall


 * LookOUT


 * Searching Through the Flames

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Kichiro Taka. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''